


Whoops

by ccuddlefish



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance, listen I just want everything to be okay.......
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 16:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3536828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ccuddlefish/pseuds/ccuddlefish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joseph slips up on the job (for, like, the first time ever) and Sebastian is left to deal with the fallout (and worried sick)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whoops

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize

"E-easy..." Joseph's voice rang out, loud in the relatively small room. Neither of them had spoken since it happened, Sebastian realized, the blood and the shards of glass still embedded in Joseph's side gumming together and forming a wall in between them. He helped Joseph across the carpet of his apartment, letting him lean on him. He paused on his way to open the blinds, and the setting sun reflected across Joseph, grimacing with indignation and sighing with pain. He let Sebastian ease him down onto the faded couch. Sebastian slid a towel under him, fingers still twitching slightly with anger, although his face bore no indication of it. He left without a word and stalked past the tiny kitchenette to the bathroom, opening the flimsy door with a loud bang.

How could Joseph be so fucking stupid? He was usually the stupid one. His fingers raked across the bathroom shelf, finding the hard plastic edge of the first aid kit and snatching the thing up with one hand, plastic protesting quietly when his fingers unconsciously dug into it. It's not hard to not get yourself kicked through a fucking glass window, Sebastian's brain continued to grumble as he left the bathroom, the closed door in his way smacking loudly against the plaster of the wall, handle nearly fitting into the dent in the wall caused by too much abuse. The walls were thin, he thought, and with that pushed the thought of slammed doors aside. As he continued back down the hall to the living room, hot rage licked at the base of his skull, spreading to his cheeks as he rounded the corner. By the time he'd walked around the couch to give his partner a piece of his mind, one could easily imagine steam boiling out of his ears. 

"I can't believe-" Sebastian started, but stopped when he saw the state of Joseph's right side. While Sebastian was gone, Joseph had managed to undo the bottom half of the buttons on his shirt and had the wad of fabric in his mouth to hold it out of the way while he inspected his wound. 

It was a big, messy affair, open slashes for about three inches across his obliques, on the right side. Chunks of glass as small as a fingernail and as large as a coin were embedded at odd places and at odd angles, and blood was starting to soak into the towel. The smell of it wound its way to Sebastian's nose, mingling with the smell of his apartment, making a sickening cocktail that nearly made him vomit. He clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Oh, Jesus Christ." Sebastian muttered, dropping to his knees and pulling out the first aid kit. Joseph smiled at him through the mouthful of shirt, but his eyes were worried. 

"You told the paramedics you didn't need any help? You've almost got the whole fucking window in your stomach!" Sebastian hissed, hovering but not ready to touch, worried his big, indelicate hands might mess something up. 

"There was only one ambulance, and the perp needed it more than me. You shot him in the leg, didn't you?" 

"Because he kicked you through a window!" 

"Still excessive force!" Joseph hissed when his body instinctively jolted up, hands clenching with the pain and chomping down on his tongue, hard. Sebastian sighed, trepidation balling into the pit of his stomach as he retrieved the tweezers from the first aid kit. 

"Well, they all look large. I'm going to try and pick them out, okay?" On the okay, his voice quieted, almost whispering. 

"This is odd. Usually I'm the one playing nurse." The joke didn't help, but Sebastian had no energy to spare in shooting his partner a glare. He pulled out the gauze and a little container to hold the glass until he could dispose of it. Here goes nothing, he thought, and clamped the tweezers around the largest piece of glass, about the size of a quarter. Joseph gasped, chomping down on his tongue again. Blood was dripping out of his nose now, too. 

"Christ, Joseph, I'm sorry-"

"Shut up and get this out of me." 

Gently, as delicately as he could, he pulled the chunk of glass out, with a revolting squelch of flesh twisting. A few droplets of blood trickled out of the wound. Joseph said nothing, but a few drops of cold sweat slid down his temple and his eyes were averted. The first piece of glass clattered into the container. Sebastian guessed there were about six or seven more, and he glanced back up at the angle of Joseph's cheek one more time before gripping a second piece. 

When it came out Joseph's spine arched, coaxing a few more drips of blood from his side, and he groaned, the tenor of his voice trembling and breaking the uncomfortable silence that had once again settled over them. The second piece clinked as it settled next to the first. Joseph went back to biting his shirt as the third slid out, smearing hot, salty red across the starched white fabric. 

That would be hard to get out, Sebastian registered in the back of his mind. He stopped for a second, setting the tweezers down and laying his hand on the only non-bloodied available body part he could find. Joseph's eyes flickered to Sebastian's hand on his leg and then to his face with a twist of confusion when it started rubbing in circles. 

"As nice as that feels, now is not the time." Joseph muttered, even as his eyes fluttered half shut and the tight, tense arch of his back softened a little.

"You okay to keep going?" The smaller man chuckled in a rare exhalation of mirth, air rushing out between his gritted teeth and twisting it into a sort of hiss. 

"Maybe we ought to get you to a hospital." Sebastian continued. All traces of the brief laugh drained from Joseph's face. 

"No." The look in his eyes begged Sebastian not to argue, and he didn't, just sighed and picked up the tweezers again. 

The fourth piece came out without much of a fight, but the fifth piece wasn't about to surrender. It had slid into his body at roughly a 25 degree angle, and while it was, he supposed, shallow, it was secured under a flap of skin, half hidden. 

"Bite down." 

"Huh?" 

"Your shirt. I don't want you biting your tongue off on top of everything else." 

"Aw, you do care." Joseph's eyes glittered.

"Of course I care, jackass. Now bite."

"Bossy." But he did it, shuffling slightly away as he did so, forcing his spine to relax into the couch cushions. His teeth sunk into the bundle of fabric, and Sebastian started. When he touched the glass with the edge of the tweezers, Joseph emitted a gasp, and the sound of teeth grinding over fabric floated down to reach Sebastian's ears. The tweezers made a slick, wet and entirely horrifying noise as they slid under the glass. He clamped them down tightly. Joseph whimpered, tears forming in the corners of his eyes and glittering in the yellowy light of the living room lamp. His breath was coming in short puffs. The glass came out, but agonizingly slowly, dragging along the edges of the wound. 

The container was stained red when the fifth piece joined the rest. 

"Hey, now." Sebastian whispered, tangling a hand in his partner's hair. Joseph's body was trembling from the exertion, and he looked oddly pale. 

"Almost done." With his free hand, he quickly divulged Joseph of the last two pieces, both about the size of his pinky nail. His spine collapsed, the perfect arch crackling as it settled into the cushions. He quickly swabbed at the wounds with antiseptic, almost smiling when this drew out another hiss, and taped a bandage to the area, securing it with gauze. 

"Hey..." He slid an arm under Joseph's shoulders where they lay prone on the couch and pulled him onto his lap. 

"I'm really sorry."

"Why? I'm the one who got himself kicked through a window." There was an edge of something chilly in his voice. His head was turned away, and all Sebastian could see was a fragment of an ear and a sea of dark hair. He sighed and titled his head down, burying his face in the crook of the smaller man's neck.

"I... I just worry about you." Sebastian whispered into Joseph's back. He heard an inhalation of breath. The little body in front of him turned, pivoting so it was straddling him, face to face. His mouth was arranged into a lopsided grin.

"You don't have to worry about me, you know. I won't make a habit of getting kicked through windows." He leaned over a little bit to press a soft kiss to his partner's lips. 

"And I'll try to make a habit of not shooting detainees in the leg."

"Could you? It's so much paperwork. Really cutting into my personal time." Joseph countered, a glint in his eye as he wiped blood from the corner of his mouth with the heel of his hand. 

"That guy deserved it! Didn't he murder like three people?" 

"Two. Also, he kicked your boyfriend through a window." 

"Someone has his priorities straight."

"Always." They sat like that for a moment, faces close together, smiling dumbly as the sun slanted orange rays into the room. Eventually, though, when the sun went down behind the building and the noises of the street below drifted up to meet them, Sebastian remembered the blood streaking Joseph's face (and now his too) and the bloody first aid supplies on the floor. Everything was coppery, and he wrinkled his nose. 

"You need a shower." It wasn't a question. 

"Yeah. Help me up?" Joseph sighed, brushing his hair out of his eye and readjusting his glasses. Sebastian offered him a hand and heaved him to his feet. 

They tumbled into the sheets, Joseph pearly with water and with his glasses askew and Sebastian likewise, warm and content. Joseph fell asleep to the clock ticking and the cars going by and the smell of copper, but Sebastian stayed awake a little longer, fingers chasing the beads of water in the other man's dark hair. Eventually, he slept, too, his arm slung lazily over Joseph's uninjured side, his head buried deep into the crook of his partner's neck.

And Krimson City sung with life all around them.


End file.
